Quit dillydallying on JTTF

Six years ago, the city of Portland made a bizarre decision to withdraw from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Bad as the decision seemed in 2005, the true extent of the city's eccentricity was not then fully apparent.

An arrest by the FBI last year in an alleged plot to bomb Pioneer Courthouse Square had the effect of throwing the city's peculiar isolationism into relief. The plot -- foiled by the FBI or created by it, depending on whom you believe -- also triggered a call from City Commissioner Dan Saltzman for the city to immediately rejoin the FBI task force.

Rather than vote immediately, Mayor Sam Adams committed to re-examine the question from every angle, and he laid out an intensive process to do just that. Although it was clear that it would delay the council's vote by a few months, the delay had a certain logic.

It offered partisans on both sides of the issue ample opportunity to express their views. It also gave the FBI a chance to demystify its workings. And it gave Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz, two city commissioners who weren't on the council in 2005, a chance to analyze the issues and reach their own conclusions.

All in all, the process that Adams set up looked like due diligence. It served to illuminate the fact that the FBI itself is more flexible and responsive than it was in 2005. Clearly, the agency today is more willing to meet Portland halfway in its demands for oversight of Portland police officers.

The process also highlighted the singularity of the city's withdrawal from the task force. Across the nation, 4,000 representatives of 650 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies participate in 106 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces. As The Oregonian's Brad Schmidt reported last month ("A hot issue, but only in Portland"), only Portland has felt the need to bow out.

No one, thus far, has offered any compelling reason why Portland should stand aloof from FBI investigations that involve most other law enforcement agencies in the region -- and the country.

But the main mystery now is why is this taking so long? The mayor's process was supposedly winding to its conclusion more than a month ago. If the mayor hopes further delay will bring about a unanimous decision, well, it seems unlikely that Commissioners Saltzman and Randy Leonard will be able to agree.

Leonard -- who (like Adams) voted for withdrawal in 2005 -- wants Portland officers to join the task force on a case-by-case basis. Saltzman, in contrast, says Portland should be consistently supporting the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and doing its part, like other law enforcement agencies, even if the city isn't always the direct beneficiary of an investigation.

Everybody has had plenty of time now to think this through. What started out to be due diligence has turned into dillydallying.

Should the city be in or out of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force? We think the case for the city to rejoin the task force is overwhelming. But either way, the City Council owes it to this community to stop dithering and make a decision.